Airline sources claimed that the delay was because of non-availability of crew.

Flight AI 306 was to depart from Indira Gandhi International Airport yesterday.

New Delhi:

About 170 passengers of Air India's Delhi-Kochi-Dubai flight, scheduled to depart at 5.10 am, were held up at the IGI airport in New Delhi for almost six hours, with the airline saying that it was due to technical reasons.

However, the airline sources claimed that the delay was because of non-availability of crew.

"AI 933 Delhi-Kochi-Dubai is held up at Delhi due to technical reasons. Revised ETD is 1100 hrs. We sincerely apologise for the delay and inconvenience caused to our esteemed passengers," Air India said in a tweet.

Sources said the flight took off at 11 am after the crew issue was resolved.

Passengers of Air India's Delhi-Tokyo flight, scheduled to leave last night, were also remained stranded for almost seven hours due to a problem with the air conditioning system, sources said.

The Flight AI 306 with 171 passengers on board was supposed to depart from the Indira Gandhi International Airport at 9.15 pm yesterday, but it took off at 4 am after the problem was fixed, they said.